Adam Reilly

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If Curt Schilling runs for Senate, will he keep his sports-media perch? Former Red Sox great Curt Schilling isn't the only prospective US Senate candidate agonizing over whether to run for Ted Kennedy's old seat. But unlike some of his potential rivals the Bloody Socked One seems determined to share his Hamlet act with the biggest possible audience.

Funny Peculiar Last week, during an appearance on the Washington, DC–based Diane Rehm Show on NPR, Ted Kennedy biographer Edward Klein suggested that if Kennedy could witness his own funeral he'd probably crack a joke.

Illogic and Cronyism Dept.
Hate Twitter? Then you're probably loving a new, buzz-generating study — released last week by the Texas market-research firm Pear Analytics — which found that the vast majority of Twitter messages, a/k/a tweets, are pretty much worthless.

When is a news story not a news story? When it becomes a Starbucks ad. This week's reminder that journalism isn't in Kansas anymore comes via a funky advertising concept showcased at nytimes.com/magazine — where, as you'd expect, the contents of the New York Times Magazine are available for Web readers.

What's behind Rupert Murdoch's paid-content push? Plus, the ambitions of BoMag's new editor. Last Wednesday, oft-vilified media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corp. — parent company of (among others) the Times of London, the New York Post , and Fox News — will soon begin charging readers for access to all its news sites.

Did the Globe drop the steroid ball? On July 30, the New York Times revealed that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez — heroes of the Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 World Series wins — are on the (supposedly) secret list of a hundred-plus major leaguers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in 2003.

ESPN's odd double standard on sex The biggest story in sports media last week was the discovery of surreptitiously shot nude-video footage of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, whose comeliness has made her a favorite — and sometimes a fetish — of the online sports commentariat.

If a tree falls in the Forest Dept. In an earnings conference call last week, Janet Robinson, the president and CEO of the New York Times Co., had choice words — make that one choice word — for published reports on the Times Co.'s attempts to unload the Boston Globe.

Banner come back If there was ever any doubt that race and perception are intimately linked, the bizarre arrest of Harvard superstar Henry Louis Gates Jr. — which hit the news this past Monday — should dispel it once and for all.

What the Banner 's closure means for Boston's African-Americans If Melvin B. Miller has his way, last week's shutdown of the Bay State Banner — the African-American-focused weekly paper Miller ran as editor and publisher for nearly half a century — won't be the end.

Electoral Ambivalence Dept. When you're running against a politician as entrenched, powerful, and seemingly unbeatable as Boston Mayor Tom Menino, it's hard to get your supporters to proudly tout their allegiance.

If the Globe shrinks, will Beacon Hill run amok? The ongoing crisis at the Boston Globe shouldn't be troubling just to devotees of the sports pages and "Coupling." Citizens who prize strong coverage of the Massachusetts State House ought to be fretting over the paper's fate, too. With its four-person State House contingent, the Globe has a stronger presence under the Golden Dome than any other major Boston media outlet.

The Times Co. actually seems intent on not getting to yes with Guild members It's no mystery why the New York Times Co. threatened, two months ago, to shutter the Boston Globe unless the paper's unions provided $20 million in concessions.

Will the Globe 's biggest union balk at the Times Co.'s offer? Plus, the Christian Science Monitor 's quietly successful re-launch, and sportswriter Bill Simmons's GM jones When the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe 's largest union, decided to take the New York Times Company's latest contract offer to its members last week, ratification seemed like a done deal.

The clock starts now on a potential Globe sale Now that the New York Times Company and representatives of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe 's biggest union, have agreed to a deal that will keep the paper alive (more on that in a bit), the great unanswered question becomes: what, exactly, does the Times Co. plan to do now ?

The Globe crisis leaves New York speechless. Plus, Morrissey Boulevard's problematic political fan club When I heard this past Friday that the New York Times Company had delivered a radical ultimatum to the Boston Globe 's 13 unions I called Globe spokesman Bob Powers to check it out. He wasn't talking.